Chapter 698

What is that?

The question filled her mind, and the Southern Demon Empress’s eyes widened.

Light.

A light bigger and brighter than anything she had ever seen.

The enormous radiance that suddenly burst forth swelled as if it would explode, swallowing the approaching darkness and permeating the world.

Kwaaa!

A pillar of light surged into the distant void, piercing the sky. Darkness that had been crashing like waves over the stone walls—darkness scattered by gaps in the thinning clouds—faltered the moment it touched the radiance, as if struck by an invisible wall.

‘…Blocked? Even the Demonic Energy summoned from the Gate?’

An impossible phenomenon.

‘The Gate’s Demonic Energy is extremely powerful—pure darkness. Even an Imoogi that has cultivated for hundreds of years can’t fully withstand it and is corrupted.’

Yet the scene before her eyes was undeniably real.

Dark clouds slowly dispersed, and the wave of darkness remained pinned in place by the radiance, unable to advance.

And then—

“Wow. This actually works.”

Jin Taekyung.

The Southern Demon Empress clenched her teeth at the sight of the young man standing at the center of the radiance, grinning at her.

“How… how on earth…”

Jin Taekyung shrugged at her unfinished sentence.

“It’s nothing much. Everyone has a Divine Stone or two hidden away, right? Don’t they?”

“…”

Divine Stone.

Those two words slammed into the back of her head like a hammer.

Only then did her gaze shift—slowly, unwillingly—away from Jin Taekyung.

‘That beast.’

A giant White Tiger.

That White Tiger, something beyond even a Mystical Creature, like the Imoogi she had corrupted in the past, had its maw open as if roaring.

And within the dazzling radiance, a shimmering form was faintly visible.

At the same time, an ancient legend of this land flashed through her mind.

“…Beast King Stone.”

Jin Taekyung chuckled at the words that slipped between her ruby-red lips.

“Oh. You know it?”

How could she not?

The symbol of the king before whom all beasts of the world prostrate themselves. How could she not know the Southern Barbarian Divine Stone that had vanished for hundreds of years?

The Southern Demon Empress had scoured this rugged land like a fine-toothed comb for over a decade in search of the Beast King Stone.

Yet despite enough time passing for landscapes to change, she hadn’t found even a single clue.

In the end, she had buried the old legend and begun her grand plan.

But—why?

“You bastards!”

Whooooong! Kwajijik!

A terrifyingly enormous energy rose, crushing everything around it.

Countless beasts that had been snarling with bared teeth lowered their tails. The palaces filling the surroundings began to crumble as if trampled beneath a giant’s feet.

The tribesmen who had rushed out of the Outer Palace, screaming, saw the existence standing tall in the void and opened their mouths.

“Ah… Aaaah…!”

Darkness.

A woman draped in surging, deep darkness looked down at the ground.

Like a god. Like an Evil Spirit from legend, weighing the lives left to them.

Yet despite everyone’s terror, the Southern Demon Empress’s gaze was fixed on only one place.

“Hand it over.”

Kureureung.

The dark clouds filling the sky let out a mournful wail.

In a world where light and darkness coexisted, her eerie voice pierced everyone’s ears.

“That is what the Heavenly Lord should take. It is not an object that insignificant beings like you can possess.”

Beasts. Humans.

Everyone froze before that overwhelming power and terror.

Forgetting to scream or flee, they could only stare blankly up into the void.

Everyone except two.

No—two beings.

“Bullshit, you crazy bitch.”

How dare a mere human covet the Divine Stone.

Jin Taekyung and the Guardian Spirit stared at the Southern Demon Empress, who stood tall in the void.

Gugugugung!

They could feel it—the unprecedented power crouching in that small body.

The pressure crushing the surroundings was greater than anything the Guardian Spirit had encountered in hundreds of years.

It surpassed even the Western Heavenly Demon, whom Jin Taekyung had faced more than once, narrowly escaping death each time.

‘Strong.’

And frightening.

A feeling any living creature would have.

But feeling fear and being trapped by fear were not the same thing.

They knew the only way to win was to endure the fear crushing their bodies and keep moving forward.

Much blood will flow. If humans—

“Shibal. If I survive this time, I won’t even piss in the direction of the Southern Barbarian lands.”

Jin Taekyung spat the words out as he tightened his grip on White Flame’s shaft.

Then he spoke quietly to Yohee, frozen behind him.

“You know what to do, right?”

“…”

“Take the people here and get out with everything you’ve got. As far as possible.”

Countless tribesmen lived in the Outer Palace, far beyond those visible at a glance.

Jin Taekyung didn’t want to drag them into the hell that was about to unfold here.

It was enough for those with power to shed blood.

The tribesmen, who had no weapons and no sharp teeth, had to survive.

Even if everyone here died at the hands of the Southern Demon Empress—

‘But… I. We will stop it.’

For now, the Demonic Energy pouring from the Gate was blocked by the Divine Stone’s power.

He didn’t know how long this standoff would last, but he had to defeat the Southern Demon Empress and close the Gate before things worsened.

‘No matter what it takes.’

Hoo.

Jin Taekyung drew a deep breath and fixed his glare on the existence standing amid the rubble of the collapsed palace, high in the distant void.

Southern Demon Empress.

The beginning and the end of everything that had happened in this land.

Someone had to fall for this cruel story to end.

“Let’s go.”

The moment the low voice slipped from his lips—

Kkwaaaaaaang!

A fierce roar tore through the wind.

The radiance that had been gradually dimming as it collided with darkness swelled again, snapping frightened beasts and humans back to their senses.

Hwareuk, Kwaaaaa!

Light erupted with the roar, and flames blazed as they wrapped around the silver blade.

The stranger who had returned to this land for the first time in hundreds of years became one with the giant White Tiger and soared.

Kwang!

Kicking off the ground.

Pa!

Stepping on invisible air and wind.

Sswaaaaaek!

Toward the darkness spread across the distant sky.

No—

Toward the existence that had grown even stronger by accepting that darkness.

“Southern Demon Empress!”

The Azure Dragon’s Roar, filled with flame, cleaved through space along with the blade.

A chilling energy rose across the woman’s face, now twisted like an Evil Spirit, stripped of all beauty.

“The Heavenly Lord desires it.”

At that moment—

Paaat!

Light and darkness, muddled together, dyed the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.

—

Goooooong.

With a roar that seemed to split the sky, an enormous force swept through the surroundings.

Baek Sang instinctively closed his eyes at the dazzling flash, then swallowed a groan as the violent wind slammed against his entire body.

‘Hoo.’

What a mighty power.

Even he, a supreme master, struggled to keep his footing in the aftermath.

When he finally opened his eyes, the area had already been devastated.

Tribesmen who had barely survived thanks to the beasts’ protection screamed as they fled.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Hoya! Hoya! Where are you?!”

“Mother!”

Palaces and houses built over long years collapsed one after another, and a grown son cried out as his elderly mother groaned beneath a fallen stone wall.

Screams and death. Blood and corpses.

The streets that had been filled with laughter and music only days ago were nowhere to be found.

Only roars and screams overflowed in every direction.

Kwang. Kwaaaang!

In the blink of an eye, light and darkness were fired at each other without pause, twisting together.

Baek Sang stared blankly at the hellscape beneath the turbid flashes and sky-splitting roars, then reached out in one direction.

Peeong!

Palm Energy shot across the space and blasted away a large rock.

A middle-aged man with graying hair, who had been desperately trying to free an old woman crushed beneath the stones even in this hell, widened his eyes.

“Y-You are…”

Had they met before? A somehow familiar face.

Baek Sang silently watched the man, whose expression mixed anger with gratitude, and the moment the old woman’s face was revealed, he realized it.

‘She resembles her. A lot.’

It was her.

The old Palace Servant he had personally ordered expelled from the Inner Palace before everything began.

One of the few who still remembered his old self.

Now she was groaning, bleeding.

“Cough. Ugh…”

“Mother!”

Did she have a child?

Baek Sang watched the man frantically check her condition, and then, without knowing why, began to move.

He didn’t know why.

He only knew he had to.

“D-Don’t come any closer!”

Hostility packed into the shout.

Even if you lock your doors, you can’t lock your ears.

Now the entire Southern Barbarian Beast Palace knew.

Their Palace Lord—the Great Chieftain of the Baek Clan—had betrayed them all.

And the cause of the screams and death that continued even now was Baek Sang himself.

The middle-aged man standing between Baek Sang and the old woman held up a jagged stone shard he must have snatched up at some point.

“I-If you take one more step…”

Swish, peok!

Finger Wind pierced the stone shard, shattering it.

Baek Sang brushed past the frozen man as if he weren’t there and reached toward the old woman.

Tudduk. Tuk!

His blurred hand struck her blood points like lightning, and the deep furrows in her wrinkled forehead eased.

“Kulk.”

The old woman vomited stagnant blood, and her complexion visibly relaxed.

The man hurriedly checked her condition, then looked at Baek Sang as if he couldn’t understand.

“W-Why?”

Why.

Baek Sang couldn’t answer even that simple question.

Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to answer it even if ten, even a hundred years passed.

Because he himself didn’t know the answer.

In the end, the words that broke the brief silence weren’t an answer.

“Leave with the others. Get as far away as possible.”

“H-Hey!”

“Are you going to let your mother die like this? Or—”

Baek Sang’s eyes sank.

“Are you going to make your mother watch you die?”

“Go. If you head to the East Gate, a way out will open.”

With that, Baek Sang turned away.

The man’s hoarse voice, freed at last, pierced his back.

“Do you think… do you think your sins will be forgiven by doing this?!”

Baek Sang answered in his heart.

No.

He had never once believed he would be forgiven.

Gugugung!

A roar fell behind him, heading toward the Inner Palace.

Yet not a trace of hesitation touched his rapidly shooting figure.

It was time to face the moment he had been drawing for decades.